Jews and Palestinians are genetically very close: this story takes the cake !!

It has been known for a long time that Palestinians and Jews are fairly closely related at the genetic level, however, to find scientific evidence is not so obvious...as it seems that although these is data on the subject, it is published in obscure journals.

In 2001, the group of Arnaiz-Villena published a sensational paper entitled "" The origin of Palestinians and their genetic relatedness with other Mediterranean populations."" in the journal Human Immunology volume 62, page 889. I enclose the abstract of that paper, it is worth a read:

The genetic profile of Palestinians has, for the first time, been studied by using human leukocyte antigen (HLA) gene variability and haplotypes. The comparison with other Mediterranean populations by using neighbor-joining dendrograms and correspondence analyses reveal that Palestinians are genetically very close to Jews and other Middle East populations, including Turks (Anatolians), Lebanese, Egyptians, Armenians, and Iranians. Archaeologic and genetic data support that both Jews and Palestinians came from the ancient Canaanites, who extensively mixed with Egyptians, Mesopotamian, and Anatolian peoples in ancient times. Thus, Palestinian-Jewish rivalry is based in cultural and religious, but not in genetic, differences. The relatively close relatedness of both Jews and Palestinians to western Mediterranean populations reflects the continuous circum-Mediterranean cultural and gene flow that have occurred in prehistoric and historic times. This flow overtly contradicts the demic diffusion model of western Mediterranean populations substitution by agriculturalists coming from the Middle East in the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition.

Fair enough, I read the methodology of the paper, sound, the conclusions appropriate, a good paper.

Obviously, someone read that paper and was less than pleased with it.

In the next issue, Human Immunology , the October issue, a letter by the Editor appears entitled ""Retraction "" by Suciu-Foca( reference: Suciu-Foca N, Lewis R. Hum Immunol. 2001 Oct;62(10):1063). In that letter, the Editor "retract " the Arnaiz paper....say what?? Why is the editor retracting a paper , if the data is valid, the conclusions sound....well, the letter states that " The Editor deeply regrets that the authors have confounded their elegant analysis of the genetic similarity between Palestinian and Jewish populations with a political viewpoint representing one side of a complex situation..this paper has been deleted from the scientific litterature".

Yep. Although it doesn't mention any of the differences between the Ashkenazis and the Sephardics, it does seem to show that the peculiar variety of racism practised by the Jews is not only brutal, but also neurotic.

"Such a drastic act of self-censorship is unprecedented in research publishing and has created widespread disquiet, generating fears that it may involve the suppression of scientific work that questions Biblical dogma."

"One of them said: 'If Arnaiz-Villena had found evidence that Jewish people were genetically very special, instead of ordinary, you can be sure no one would have objected to the phrases he used in his article. This is a very sad business.'"